The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Indians lift junior Davis Cup

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 02, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Indians lift junior Davis Cup

NEW DELHI, MAY 1. Jeevan Nedunchezhian and Rupesh Roy powered India to a 2-0 victory over top-seeded Australia in the final of the Asia-Oceania ITF junior Davis Cup tennis tournament in Colombo on Saturday.

It was a clinical performance by India, seeded second, as the team did not allow Australia to stretch the contest into the decisive doubles. There was, however, some anxiety as the No.1 Rupesh Roy started badly, losing the first set against Steven Goh in the second singles, but recovered to clinch the issue for the favourites.

India had been ruthless in its progress to the final, beating Korea and Philippines in the league and quelling the challenge from Thailand and Japan in the knock-out phase. India did not drop a match in the tournament featuring 17 countries, and in fact, only Rupesh dropped two sets in his singles matches while the rest did not drop a set either in singles or doubles.

Captain Sandeep Kirtane was quite happy with the performance of the boys and was all praise for them, when contacted in Colombo.

"Both Jeevan and Rupesh played solid throughout the week. The third member — Sanam Singh — also played his part well. All three are good singles players, but I opted for Jeevan and Rupesh for singles because they are good on clay,'' said Sandeep Kirtane.

The top four teams qualified for the World Group final to be played in Barcelona in September, but Sandeep hoped that by winning the regional qualification India would get seeded.

"I have travelled with a lot of other juniors. Believe me these boys are really good. It was a fun job for me, handling them, as it was basically trying to keep them focused and discuss about shot selection, tactics etc.'' said Sandeep, who was equally happy to be hitting with the boys in preparing them. "They need to work on a few things, and they have a good future," he said.

Sandeep said that there was nothing much to worry about the two first sets that Rupesh had lost in his matches against Australia and Korea.

"Rupesh needs to work on his temperament. He is an emotional and instinctive player, but he is a great fighter,'' he observed.

Talking in a lighter vein, Sandeep pointed out that Rupesh continued to break his strings as often as he had always done, and in fact had broken about 20 racquets during the week-long tournament.

"Jeevan is more solid, and gets his job done. He has a professional kind of mind,'' said Sandeep about the talented left-hander from Chennai.

"Sanam is more like me, hits the ball on the rise, and more flat than Rupesh and Jeevan,'' remarked Sandeep about Sanam Singh, who had caught everyone's imagination in recent months with his all-round play.

The captain was a bit disappointed that there was no trophy for the winner.

"We will be coming in our India track-suits in the flight to Chennai on Sunday evening,'' said Sandeep, as he signed off with satisfaction, on a job well executed by his talented wards.

The results (final):

India beat Australia 2-0 (Jeevan Nedunchezhian bt Matt Symons 6-2, 6-4; Rupesh Roy bt Steven Goh 2-6, 6-4, 6-4).

The final placings: 1. India, 2. Australia, 3. Japan, 4. Chinese Taipei, 5. Sri Lanka, 6. Korea, 7. Thailand, 8. Uzbekistan, 9. New Zealand, 10. Indonesia, 11. Malaysia, 12. Myanmar, 13. Hong Kong, 14. Philippines, 15. Pakistan, 16. Singapore and 17. Syria.

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